What began as an idea for a simple “meet and greet” turned into over 100 CBJ fans making their way to Grandview, in the middle of a hot August afternoon, to spend several hours talking hockey and sharing our love of the Blue Jackets.
I took a few pictures, which you can see here, but more than a few attendees brought their own cameras, in particular Mark from The View From 210, who I believe will have a page of photos up shortly.
There was food, there were drinks, and tons and tons of conversation, including our guests from the Blue Jackets, Todd Sharrock and Larry Hoepfner, who took the time out of their weekends to come and hang out with us. Both Todd and Larry were incredibly generous, happy to talk to everyone, and provided an unexpected surprise: A set of tickets in the lower bowl to this season’s home opener, which one lucky fan won towards the end of the afternoon.
And, as promised, we made one fan very, very happy:
Our thanks again to Greg May of Full Mental Jackets for offering the Grandview BW3 to host the event, to the Jacket Backers for helping with providing awesome prizes to the attendees, and to all of you for being some of the best fans in the NHL.
Also, as you may recall, Skraut (CBJ Fan video maker extraordinaire) had a new video to debut. It’s fantastic – capturing the bittersweet essence of last season while pumping you up with the promise of the new season to come. Couldn’t make it?
Don’t worry. We have you taken care of.
Blue Jackets – Requiem For a Season from Skraut on Vimeo.
By the end of the afternoon, the question was not “would this be a one-time thing?”, but “When are you guys doing this again?”
I can’t speak for Greg or Tom from The Dark Blue Jacket, our other major partner in crime, but for my part, I’ve certainly got a few ideas – and one way or another, CannonFest will return!